Children Of Poseidon
by Morwen Tindomerel
Summary: What happened back at Camp Half-Blood between 'The Lost Hero' and 'Son of Neptune'. Remember what Poseidon said about sending Percy some brothers and sisters? He wasn't joking.
1. Prologue

Pearl restrained an urge to drop to her knees and kiss the ground. Air travel just didn't agree with children of Poseidon. The high celestial bronze sides of the _Argo II_ reared reassuringly solid at her back as she looked around at a vista of pillars and statues with a whole lot of people of all ages, not just kids, looking warily back at her from a safe distance. Red tiled roofs and white and golden domes crowded the hills behind them. Annabeth had nearly fallen overboard in excitement at her first sight of New Rome. And were those ghosts? Then Tyson pushed his way through a crowd of kids and adults in togas and Pearl braced herself for one of his bone crushing hugs.

"Sister! You are alive – and so am I!"

"Yeah, thank Dad," Pearl wheezed. "We've missed you Big Brother. Did you find Percy?"

"Yes!" Tyson beamed all over his broad, one eyed face. "Percy is alive too. Everybody is alive, that's good."

"It sure is," Pearl agreed. "So where is he?"

Not far away as it turned out with Annabeth wrapped around him. All Pearl could see of her famous big brother was a head of black hair and a pair of arms. Two kids in purple t-shirts and jeans stood by looking embarrassed. Pearl stuck out a hand. "Hi, I'm Percy's sister Pearl van Bruyn."

"Uh, Frank Zhang," the boy answered taking it. "And this is Hazel Levesque. We're Percy's friends."

"So he did alright here. We were a little worried."

"He did great," Hazel Levesque answered. "He saved Rome. We've made him praetor -" she broke off suddenly uncertain.

Pearl understood; that had been Jason's job - awkward. Annabeth and Percy finally surfaced for air.

"Guess you remember me, Seaweed Brain," she grinned.

"Like I could forget, Wise Girl!" he answered. Pearl took a long look at her famous brother. Wow, he really did look like her.

"Percy," Tyson said, "Percy, say hello to our sister."

"Huh?" So, not the sharpest pencil in the box just like Annabeth had said. "We don't have a sister?" his tone made it a question then he saw Pearl and apparently the resemblance struck him speechless.

"Actually you have three," she told him.

"They are pretty," Tyson put in proudly.

"Thanks, Big Brother. And you've got two more brothers as well."

"They are strong," said Tyson.

Percy looked like somebody had socked him in the stomach; stunned and breathless.

"Dad said he told you about us," said Pearl.

"He – he did. I thought he was joking," Percy managed.

"He wasn't."


	2. I Face A Dark And Stormy Night And Day

It was a dark and stormy night. No, honest, it was. It's not my fault that it's a cliché.

Anyway it was a dark and stormy night and I had no business being outside much less in a small sailboat on the Vineyard Sound. If I survived this Mom was gonna kill me.

Actually I wasn't worried about surviving, worse came to worse I could always walk home but I'd never hear the end of it if I lost the boat. All in all I was beginning to feel like maybe this hadn't been one of my better ideas though it was really Mom's fault for going all peculiar on me.

I've been sailing practically all my life and since we moved to Martha's Vineyard year round I've gone out every day rain or shine in my boat the _Mermaid_ so why Mom would suddenly turn around and forbid me to take her out alone – when she knows perfectly well I _can't_ drown - I just don't know and she wouldn't explain. It was so unfair.

After a week on the beach I was downright stir crazy. Not only did Mom forbid me to go out alone but she refused to go with me and the only other person I'd trust aboard my boat wouldn't come either. I don't know what was the matter with them and was beyond caring.

I _refuse_ to obey irrational orders. I am not a baby I'm nearly thirteen, practically grown up. There was not one good reason why I shouldn't take my boat out – so I did - at night when I wouldn't be stopped. I'd seen a storm was blowing up but I didn't think it'd be a problem. Boy had I gotten that wrong!

A huge wave of foam streaked black water heaved up higher than the _Mermaid's_ mast ready to fall on us like a house. "Don't you _dare!_" I shouted at it.

The wave froze, hanging in place. I swiveled my head so I could keep staring at it as wind and current moved my boat around a suddenly stationary mountain of water. Okay, that was weird. Granted weird is my life, especially weirdness connected with water.

Like I said I can't drown because I can breathe water like its air. I can walk on it too. And my boat does exactly what I want her too even against the wind – well usually. For some reason this storm seemed to be interfering with my usual control. The only reason I didn't feel like a total freak was I knew I wasn't the only person who could do this stuff. My friend Nausithoe could do everything I could do and more so there were at least two of us. And it didn't faze Mom either so it couldn't be all that weird – could it?

Then the weirdness quotient took a giant leap upward as a big, muscular bluish arm hooked itself over the _Mermaid's_ side, followed by another arm and finally a face with creepy glowing green eyes and a shark toothed smile.

I screamed - like who wouldn't? The sea creature made calming motions with a webbed hand and dropped back with a splash. I crawled to the side to look over and saw him just below the waterline pushing at the _Mermaid_ which was slowly heeling about. I huddled as far from the water as it was possible to get on my little boat, terrified. After a minute or two I realized I was being pushed back to Martha's Vineyard which was a good thing as long as my toothy friend wasn't planning to put the munch on me when we got there.

Turned out he would have had to get in line. Mom was waiting at the dock, looking like she'd fallen into the ocean with her short dark curls plastered to her head and a murderous look on her face. Nausithoe was standing right next to her, tanned and blond and completely dry despite the driving rain. Mom yanked me out of the boat and Nausie bent to talk to _two_ blue mermen who'd surfaced beside it. I gaped at her then Mom gave me a little shake to get my attention.

"What were you _thinking_, Pearl? Out at night and in this storm!"

"What was I supposed to do," I shouted back both because I was angry and to be heard above the thunder. "You won't let me go out in good weather and broad daylight and you won't say why!"

Mom waved a dripping arm skyward. "_That's_ why!"

"It wasn't storming this morning, or yesterday, or -" I yelled back.

"It would have been if you'd gone out," Nausie said grimly behind me.

I turned to her, grateful to see my weird rescuers had vanished. "What are you talking about?"

She ignored the question, going on to Mom over my head. "It's no good, Edith. Even if we keep her ashore they'll just try something else."

"Who will?" I asked, beginning to feel more bewildered than angry.

"What's happening, Nausithoe?" Mom almost wailed. "Why are our defenses crumbling like this, and why won't Philip answer me?"

I pricked up my ears. Philip was my father. I'd only seen him once, on my ninth birthday, I didn't even know his last name or where he lived. There was some huge mystery about him. I suspected he was the reason I was so weird. He'd given me a huge sea blue pearl for my birthday present, and he'd promised that he would tell me _everything_ when I was older. For some reason I was willing to take that from him though I'd have thrown a tantrum if Mom tried it. There was something very authoritative and trustworthy about Dad.

"I don't know, Edith," Nausithoe was saying. "He won't answer me either. Something must be very wrong."

Mom wrung her hands. "I don't understand. He said it was over, that everything would be all right now."

"I know. That's what we all thought but looks like we were wrong. Edith, I think I better take Pearl to camp now. Summer might be too late."

"Is Dad in trouble?" I broke in, feeling scared for the first time. If something happened to my dad I'd never know who he was - or who _I_ was.

Mom hugged me. "Don't worry about your father, honey. He can take care of himself and of us too."

"He's relying on us to look after Pearl for him," Nausie said. "You'll be all right, Edith, all this is aimed at my master's daughter not you."

Mom nodded, still holding me. "I know. I'm not important. Take her to camp, Nausithoe. She'll be safer there."

…

I spent the rest of that dark and stormy night packing and the crack of dawn found me aboard Nausie's _Swiftsure,_ a racing sailboat about twice the size of my _Mermaid. _Gray clouds scudded overhead. The sea was also gray and choppy. It felt unfriendly and I said so to Nausie.

She nodded. "It is. Don't worry, we are guarded."

By the mermen I could see them swimming alongside just under the surface with trident spears in their hands. "About your friends -" I began.

"No," Nausie interrupted. "No questions, Pearl. The less you know the safer you are."

"But -"

She interrupted again. "I'll explain everything once we're at camp."

"That's the same camp Mom was talking about right, the one on Long Island?"

"Yes."

I hadn't been off Martha's Vineyard since I was nine so a summer camp had sounded pretty good when Mom mentioned it. That my dad wanted me to go had clinched the deal as far as I was concerned. Whatever Dad said for me to do, I would do. Mostly because he knew what was going on and I didn't – yet.

"Near Montauk, right?"

"That's right. Not far at all by sea."

Just fifty nautical miles, nothing at all for the _Swiftsure_ normally but it soon became clear that there would be nothing 'normal' about this voyage.

The sky got darker and the seas higher. Waves smacked _Swiftsure's_ sides like giant fists and the mast, stripped of sail, creaked and swayed in the near hurricane force wind. For the first time in my life I was afraid at sea. This wasn't natural, it wasn't _right._ Then I saw the giant wading towards us. Yes _wading,_ about hip deep in water I _knew_ was at least three hundred feet deep, looking like a man shaped mountain wrapped in clouds and lightning.

"Aegeon!" I tore my eyes away to look at Nausie.

"What?"

She grabbed my arm; "Into the water, quick!" I didn't hesitate for a minute but dived right in, mermen or no merman, sharks or no sharks. Nausie pulled in front, swimming strongly downward and I followed with mermen all around us.

Something almost hit me on the head. I dodged and managed to catch it - a shattered bit of fiberglass like part of a sailboat hull. "Oh, Nausie, the _Swiftsure!_" I'd known I could breathe underwater but I'd never tried talking underwater before. My voice sounded strange, like vibrations inside my head.

Nausie heard me and looked back over her shoulder, still swimming. "It doesn't matter. Better the boat then us!"

I paddled hard to draw alongside. "Where are we going?"

"Still Montauk, we've got to get to camp."

"That must be some camp!" I said.

"The safest place on earth for children like you," she answered. "If anywhere is still safe!"

"I'm guessing storm giants are bad news?" I said.

"Horrible," her face looked pinched, like she was scared enough to cry; "It can't be happening again - please not!"

"What, what's happening again?"

Instead of answering me she spoke to the merman swimming closest to us. "We need mounts, Glaukos."

"Yes, lady." He put a curly horn to his lips and blew a long, quivery note that shimmered visibly in the still water far below the surface storms. White spots appeared in the depths moving rapidly upwards towards us. As they got closer I saw they were horses – sort of. The front half was horse, but with flippers rather than hooves, and the back half was some kind of large fish.

Mer-horses… fine, why not? They went well with the mermen. It was about then that it dawned on me for the first time that maybe my dad wasn't human – or me either.


	3. Ride 'Em MerBoy!

Riding sea horses turned out to be even more fun than sailing. I could tell we were heading at an angle away from the coast because I have a perfect sense of direction at sea. We skimmed speedily over the ocean floor which was very cool in every sense of the word. The seafloor was all pebbly with clumps of sea plants waving their fronds or bristling like porcupines. Fish of all sizes and colors hovered in schools watching us pass with flat unblinking eyes. I guess they didn't see mermen and mer-horses every day.

There was this shrill chattering noise in my head, like excited chipmunks that I figured was coming from the fish. Then we crossed paths with a pod of migrating Right Whales and they stopped to stare too and deep booming voices joined the chorus. Finally I could make out the words; "Daughter of the sea god, daughter of Poseidon."

I stared at Nausithoe's back, Poseidon's daughter? like the ancient Greek god? Oh-kay. That would explain the mermen and mer-horses but not why they were all so interested saving me from storm giants. For that matter why was a storm giant picking on me? What had I ever done to him?

Something moved in the blue distance, something large. At first I thought it was another pod of whales but as it came closer I realized it could only be a sea serpent. Actually it was more like a sea centipede with dozens of little paddling legs down its sides, a flat tail and a strange doggy head with long whiskers growing out of the nostrils.

Nausie reined in her sea horse and grabbed the bridle of mine. "It's the Scolopendra!"

"The what?"

The mermen formed a screen between the two of us and the oncoming whatever-it-was. I guess I can't blame Nausie for not answering me – stuff was happening: The scolo-whatsit darted it's head at us, big teeth gnashing impressively and the mermen swarmed out to surround and stab it with their tridents like a bunch of wasps attacking a large dog – but with much less effect. The whatsit barely seemed to notice them, all its attention was on Nausie and me.

She let go of my bridle to charge right at the sea serpent stabbing it inside one flaring nostril. That sure got a reaction! It reared back roaring, towering high over us and scattering the mermen with its thrashing tail.

That's when I felt my pearl. It was always warm, just skin temperature, but now it was radiating heat. My fingers went to it and suddenly I could not quite see a glow to the water around me, a sort of force field bubble big enough to surround me and my mer-horse. Normally I would have thought that was odd but given I was under attack by a sea serpent the needle of my weirdness gauge barely quivered. Instead I concentrated on the force field. It _was_ connected to my pearl! As I focused on it, it became more visible rippling like moonlight on ocean swells.

It was also getting the sea-serpent's full attention. Its big eyes in their boney sockets fixed on me, scattering the mermen and Nausie far and wide with its numerous paddle feet and tail. It made another one of those darting attacks – only to rebound off my force bubble with a high, dolphin like squawck.

Wow! Shades of Sue Storm – you know from the Fantastic Four – which gave me an idea. I hung onto my pearl and concentrated some more. The force field changed shape, from a bubble to a round shield in front of me. I expanded it until it was as tall as the serpent and twice as wide the scolo-thingy just watching, like it couldn't figure out what I was doing. I guess sea serpents aren't strong on brains – I gave the big wavering field a hard shove, with my mind I mean.

It shot forward, warping itself around ol'whiskers and blasting him backward. He hit the side of a low undersea hill sending up clouds sandy sea floor and bits of plant. I grabbed a fallen trident and pounced, stabbing it right in one big eye. Dark blood billowed around me then suddenly the serpent exploded into a ball of expanding yellow dust that was torn apart and swept away by the gulf- stream.

"_Daughter of the Sea god, daughter of Poseidon!"_ the little fish voices chanted.

"Oh well done!" Nausithoe cried enthusiastically. "Now let's get out of here!"

…..

We walked out of the sea and into the light, that is Nausie and I did. Our remaining mermen and their mer-horses stayed below. The sun shone bright on this stretch of Long Island beach while rain pounded down on the hills rising to either side and into the Sound behind us. To our right a dense forest ran right down to the water's edge. To the left a small river emptied into the sea. Directly ahead of us on a low rise was the strangest looking picnic area I'd ever seen.

A circle of tall white Greek columns surrounded two concentric circles of tables covered with purple edged white cloths and stone benches arranged around a huge firepit. Some of the tables were crowded with teenagers and younger kids, others had just one or two sitting at them and at least four were totally empty.

Everybody was so busy eating and drinking that they completely failed to notice the two of us as we climbed the hill to them. The smell of pizza and barbecue twitched my nose and my stomach howled like a wolf. It'd been a _long_ time since breakfast!

"Chiron!" Nausie said sharply.

A bearded man who for some strange reason was sitting on a horse instead of a bench turned his head then backed away from the table and walked slowly towards us. He wasn't riding a horse he was a horse, from the waist down that is. You'd think after mermen and sea-serpents I'd be beyond being shocked by weird mythic stuff – and you'd be wrong. My weird meter dinged so loudly that I completely missed whatever Nausie was saying to the centaur until she got to my name. "- this is Pearl."

"Welcome, Pearl." He bowed from the waist. "Please have seat, you must be hungry –"He broke off abruptly staring over my head. The kids at the tables who'd hushed down to listen suddenly all started jabbering at once and pointing at me – or rather at something above me. I looked up to see what was causing all the excitement. A gently spinning hologram of a glowing green trident was hanging over my head like the bubble in a comic strip.

"It is determined," Chiron intoned deep and solemn-like. Slowly, stiffly, he lowered himself until he was kneeling on one horse knee which looked really, really awkward not to mention uncomfortable. And then the kids were all climbing off their benches to kneel too, even Nausie got down there, and I was wondering the what the heck was going on, then Chiron explained - sort of.

"Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail Pearl, daughter of the Sea God!"

A boy, sitting alone at a table, cheered. The other campers looked kind of stunned. Chiron had all he could do to get back on his hooves but Nausie was glowing with pride like she'd invented me.

"I thought _you_ were the daughter of Poseidon!" I sort of sputtered.

She laughed. "I am a Nereid, a servant of Poseidon. He set me to guard you from his enemies."

"Like storm giants and sea serpents?"

Her smile vanished. "Yes."

"Storm giant?" Chiron looked worried.

"Yes, Master Chiron, and the Scolopendra."

"Oh dear!" the centaur made a visible effort to compose himself. "Sit down, child," he said to me, "and have some lunch. Nausithoe, come down to the Big House with me. We need to talk."

The kid who'd cheered was waving his arm energetically for my attention. "Over here, this is our table! Am I ever glad to see you!" he went on when I'd made my way to 'our' table through kids who seemed willing to give me lots of space. "It's been downright creepy on my own."

"Who're you?" I asked, leaning the trident I was still carrying against the table and wondering when the world was going to start to make sense again.

He stuck out his hand. "Henry Morgan Coxsun, son of Poseidon. Call me Morgan."

I shook. "Pearl van Bruyn – wait a minute, you mean you're my _brother_?"

He looked as startled as I felt then shrugged. "I guess I am."

We sat. My new brother had a medium brown skin, the kind they call 'café au lait', a reddish tinge to his straight dark hair and green eyes – just like mine. He also had one of those terrific Jamaican accents and was a year or two younger than me.

"Dad _can't_ be some old Greek god," I said helplessly. "He wears Hawaiian shirts!"

"And a fishing hat with lures?" asked Morgan.

I blinked, "Yeah."

He nodded. "That's my dad. I met him on my seventh birthday for the first and only time – so far anyway." Morgan showed me a big gold doubloon hanging on a chain around his neck. "He gave me this for a present."

"I got a pearl," I said. "Is yours magic?"

"Oh yeah!" he said with some emphasis. "Saved my life it did! You won't believe what happened to me yesterday."

A pretty girl in a green dress showed up just them with a plate full of pizza and barbecue and I chowed down. "After the morning I've had I'll believe anything."

Morgan sort of quirked his eyebrows at me in a way that suddenly reminded me a lot of my dad Philip – Poseidon - whoever. "Mom and I keep a hotel at Port Royal," he went on. "Yesterday it was attacked by Blackbeard the pirate."

"I don't believe it!" I said.

My brother made a face. "Me either."

"Blackbeard's dead."

"He is now," my new brother looked grim. "I killed him yesterday." My guts knotted. A kid his age _killed_ somebody?"

"But how could he be alive for you to kill? I mean he was sailing the Spanish Main centuries ago wasn't he?"

Morgan shrugged. "According to him he'd spent the last three hundred years as a guinea pig."

"What?"

"That's what I said. He didn't want to talk about it. Then he tried to hurt my mom –" Morgan swallowed. "So I killed him.

"Good for you," I said to make him feel better.

He looked a little happier. "I had to."

"Sure you did, you had to protect your mom."

"Then my friend Mel came charging in and killed the others, grabbed me and brought me here," Morgan went on. "Turns out he's a sea god too. Dad gave him the job of looking out for me."

"Like my friend Nausithoe." We both thought about that. It was nice Dad cared but more than a little worrying that we needed so much protection - and downright scary that it wasn't enough.


	4. My Weirdness Meter Breaks

After lunch my new brother showed me our cabin. Camp Half-blood, he said, had been built especially for the children of the Greek gods –who it seemed had a thing for mortal women – as a safe place where they could train to fight all the monsters we attracted, apparently we smell real appetizing.

"Well that goes a way toward explaining my trip here," I said as Morgan opened the door of a long, low stone building with little white fossils of shells and fish showing on the rough cut blocks. "Wow!"

The inside was completely different from the outside. The walls were smooth and shiny and shimmering with colors like we were inside an abalone shell. At the far end big picture windows were open to the cool, salty breeze coming off the Sound.

Morgan grinned. "Nice isn't it?"

"Gorgeous!"

It really was. Delicate seahorses, I mean the kind I'd just been riding not the fish, made of some coppery metal hung from the ceiling, twisting and turning on fine wires. Little aquariums full of colorful anemones and underwater plants stood on the window sills and in a corner water gurgled out of stone fish head into a basin lined with brilliant corals.

There were six bunks, three to a side with their heads against the wall, each had a night table with an old fashioned gas lamp beside it and an iron bound sea chest at the foot. The first bunk on the right had a pirate cutlass hanging on the wall above its pillow. The last bunk in the same row had what looked like a cow's horn hanging over it and a full suit of armor on a sort of dressmaker's dummy next to the nightstand.

I pointed at it. "Who sleeps there?"

"That's Percy Jackson's bunk," Morgan answered. "He's our brother and a real big hero around here. Only he disappeared without a trace back in December."

"I thought this camp was supposed to be safe?" I said nervously.

"Safer but not perfect," Morgan explained. "Anyway Percy wasn't taken by an enemy. Hera took him –"

"Hera? Like the goddess?"

"That's her. She's got some kind of plan, Percy's part of it and Annabeth is _furious_."

"Who's Annabeth, a sister?" I asked. This was getting complicated!

"No, she's Percy's girlfriend -" There was a knock at the door. "That's probably her now." He went to open the door.

A tall blond girl two or three years older than me and a lot more mature – if you know what I mean – stood on the step looking stern and beautiful and impressive, a neat trick in khaki shorts and an orange t-shirt. She looked at me with stormy gray eyes and swallowed.

"Gods! You're even more like Percy than Morgan is."

"Uh…sorry?" I said uncertainly.

She forced a smile. "It's not your fault. Percy would be so pleased to meet you. He never liked staying here all alone."

I could see that. I mean the cabin was really terrific but at night it might be kind of creepy if you were all by yourself.

She held out her hand. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and girlfriend to your seaweed brained big brother." We shook and she continued. "Chiron sent me to bring you up to the Big House. You're owed an explanation or three and the usual orientation film just won't cut it."

All I could think was that had to be some orientation film! I hadn't paid much attention to the other cabins when Morgan showed me ours but following Annabeth through the big common area with its fountains, statues, flowerbeds and basketball hoops, I couldn't help noticing that the gods had very strange taste in housing.

Poseidon's place was totally cool but some the others were a lot less friendly looking. The red splashed, barbed wired place next door to our cabin just _had_ to belong to the god of war - whoever he was - and the glowing golden temple must be for the children of the sun-god whose name I did remember; Apollo. But I had no idea which god stashed his kids in a miniature factory or whose kids lived in the almost normal log cabin at the end of the row.

The cabins on the other side of the common were a lot prettier; there was one all overgrown with flowers, another kind of modernist looking of gray stone and glass, the third looked like it was built of silver, the fourth like a Barbie dream house and the fifth was smothered with vines. Two formal, temple like building stood at the head of the U of cabins and others stretched away in short rows on either side but I didn't get a very good look at them.

We walked over a wooden bridge, past an open pillared building with potter's wheels and half-finished statues inside and by beds of strawberry plants, to a big, blue painted farmhouse then up the steps of the wrap-around porch and through a door into a leafy green living room. Vines climbed the walls and criss-crossed the ceiling. The windows were framed with leaves and clumps of grapes instead of curtains and the display of fancy masks on the opposite wall had vine tendrils and grapes coming out of their mouth and eyeholes. The furniture was relatively normal; sagging leather sofas around a big coffee table with photographs under glass like at my grandparents'.

Nausithoe was sitting on one of the sofas with Chiron next to her, not on the sofa of course but with his horse legs folded under him on the floor. A blond boy about Annabeth's age and just as good looking sat on the second sofa next to a skinny brown haired kid with horns and goat's legs…well, why not? The fact that he was meditatively munching on a tin can boosted the weirdness quotient but the leopard's head over the mantle licking its chops sent it over the top.

Chiron smiled a welcome and waved us to the third sofa. "Sit down and have some lemonade." Morgan and I poured ourselves glasses from the pitcher on the coffee table and sat. "This is Jason Grace, son of Zeus," our centaur host said indicating tall blond and gorgeous. And Grover Underwood, lord of the Wild.

"And Percy's best friend," the goat boy added.

"Yes of course," Chiron said soothingly. Then to me; "I don't know how much your brother has told you, Pearl -"

"Not much," Morgan interrupted. "Seeing as I don't understand it all very well myself."

At that moment the door opened and a tall, brown haired girl in a suit of golden armor came in. Not armor like knights errant but like a Roman soldier. She poured herself a glass of lemonade and sat down next to Annabeth. "Clarisse LaRue, daughter of Ares," Chiron said to my brother and me like an introduction. Clarisse put her combat boots on the coffee table and took a gulp of her lemonade.

"Now…where to begin," Chiron wondered. "Perhaps with a little history; as you now know, Pearl, the Greek gods really exist and so did their predecessors the titans. The king of the titans and the father of the Olympians was Kronos who gained power by murdering his father Ouranus. To prevent the same happening to him Kronos swallowed each of his children as they were born –"

"Yuck!" I said.

"It was a singularly ruthless strategy," Chiron continued. "But Fate cannot be cheated. Queen Rhea managed to save her last child, Zeus. And he in due course forced his father to disgorge his two brothers and three sisters –"

I raised my hand. "Excuse me? They'd been eaten!"

"Being immortal gods they simply grew up inside their father's body," Chiron explained, "and emerged quite unharmed. They of course allied themselves with Zeus against their cruel father and his fellow titans who they succeeded in defeating and banishing to the depths of Tartarus."

"Uh, good?" I said uncertainly.

"Very good. However the titans are also immortals and several years ago Kronos managed to regain enough power to influence events in the upper world. To make quite a long story short there was a second titan war which, fortunately, once again ended in victory for the gods."

"And this war is why Philip – I mean Poseidon – had my mom move us to Martha's Vineyard and surrounded it with mermen?" I said, enlightened.

"Precisely," Chiron hesitated, as if deciding on exactly what to say next. "Percy Jackson, your elder brother, had already been drawn into the war but Poseidon saw no reason for the rest of you to become involved and so took precautions."

"But he'd told Mom it was over and we were safe now," I said, remembering what Mom'd said to Nausithoe.

She and Chiron both looked extremely unhappy. "We thought you were," my Nereid friend said, "Then things started happening."

"The last time the titans were defeated their mother Gaea - Mother Earth - bore a race of giants to avenge them by destroying the gods. Unfortunately -"

"That's happened again too." I guessed. The whole gang of them nodded. "That doesn't sound good."

"It isn't," Chiron said grimly. "Jason killed two of the giants last December, including their king Prophyrion but they will certainly return."

"Death isn't final anymore," Jason explained. "At least not for anybody Gaea wants as an ally. Monsters reform immediately instead of staying dead for months or years and even mortals from ancient times are coming back. I've seen Medea and King Midas myself and there are reports of others."

"What about my dad?" I asked beginning to feel scared, "Mom said he wasn't answering her calls. Is he all right? Do you know?"

"I'm sure he is," Jason said with a lovely reassuring smile. "None of the gods have been answering prayers lately. Jupiter – I mean Zeus – hoped if the gods kept very quiet Gaea might go back to sleep." He grimaced. "It didn't work."

"So what are we going to do?" I asked looking uncertainly from face to face.

"Fight," Clarisse said shortly, sitting up straight her feet thumping to the floor.

"But if your enemies aren't staying dead -" I began.

"We kill 'em again, as many times as it takes," she said biting off the words. It was hard to believe that anything _she_ killed would have the nerve to come back!

"Morgan said Hera had a plan," I said hesitantly. Hey, she was queen of the gods right? Surely she could come up with something good.

Chiron looked at Jason and sighed. "That is another long and complicated story."


	5. I Have Bad Dreams

Falling asleep that night was easy. The bubble of water into the fountain and clean ocean smell was incredibly soothing, and the bunk with its sea colored silk sheets unbelievably comfortable but is it any wonder I had nightmares after the day I'd had?

They started peacefully enough – the worst nightmares always do – I was standing surrounded by trees under a high bare hill. A boy was lying with his head pillowed on a big oak root, half covered by old brown leaves. He had thick black hair with a wave in it, like mine, and a very straight nose like a Greek statue. He was wearing the Camp Half-blood uniform of orange t-shirt and shorts and I knew he could only be my missing older brother Percy Jackson. I bent to shake him awake but my hand went right through his shoulder like I was ghost – or he was. Then the long yellow grass on the hill above us rippled and formed into a face with horrible black hollows for eyes and a mouth stretching wider and wider in a howl of rage and frustration.

I crouched down next to Percy clutching the pearl around my neck. The face on the hillside went on screeching. The trees heaved and shook but the ground under Percy and me was perfectly still, not even a leaf stirring. Slowly I straightened up. 'She can't get us,' I said to my unconscious brother. 'Something – somebody's protecting us… I mean you,' because I wasn't really there at all.

Next thing I knew I was skimming over a choppy sea just inches above the waves. And there was the storm giant churning the ocean to foam with lightning flashing around him as he attacked airplanes and big container ships. Sirens were going off and I could almost hear the SOSes crackling through the ether.

The next instant the storm was gone and I was in some kind of underwater cave eerily lit by glowing seaweed and darting fish streaked with luminous spots like tiny Christmas lights. Powerful currents swirled around and through me churned by the thrashing of pair of huge sea serpents, their shiny black sides glistening like eels' skin. Three small, bright shapes darted in and out between them, dodging contracting coils and gnashing teeth.

Before I could figure out exactly what was going on I was whirled away into another place. I was still underwater but standing on a pearl cobbled street between buildings of coral and shell. I pressed myself against a wall as mer-people streamed past. They were blue skinned and pointy toothed like my guards but all sizes including little mer-kids and babies in their parents' arms. And they all looked terrified. The sea floor shook, walls swayed and cracks opened in the road. The mer-people gave high, dolphin-like screams and swam faster. I wanted to go see what they were escaping from and the next instant I was at the other end of the street floating above a sort of terrace behind a big man with two legs instead of a fishes' tail. He was wearing pearly scaled armor and had black hair floating around his head and a glowing golden trident in his hand. I looked over his shoulder down into a sort of square. The stone pavement was cracked and buckled with glowing red lave flowing out of a fiery crater in the center, then a massive flaming arm punched upward and I screamed.

The man in the pearl armor turned around and it was Philip – Poseidon – my dad. "Daddy!" I tried to swim to him but couldn't without a body. He shot a quick glance over his shoulder where a huge head was emerging from the crater after the arm then reached for me and all of a sudden I was solid, hanging on to his big, warm hand with all my might. "Daddy, I found Percy he's safe -"

"I know," he interrupted. "Hera is protecting him – blast her interference! Pearl, I want you to stay in camp even in your dreams!

"But –"

"Please, sweetheart. Bad enough Percy's in danger. Keep yourself safe and take care of your little brothers and sisters for me." Behind him the lava giant roared as it pulled itself out of the crater. The ground heaved.

"Daddy!"

"Go Pearl!"

My eyes popped open. I lay in my bunk heart pounding. The abalone walls reflected enough of the moonlight outside for me to see Morgan twitching in his bed opposite mine. Suddenly he hurtled upright.

"Look out, Dad!"

"Morgan!" He blinked at me, eyes reflecting glassily in the dim light. "Bad dream?"

He sucked in a breath. "Yeah, Dad was fighting a lava giant –"

"But that was _my_ dream!" I blurted. We looked at each other.

"You don't think -" he was beginning when somebody banged on the door. We almost didn't answer then it occurred to me that monsters wouldn't knock so I did.

It was Grover, Percy's goaty friend. "Chiron wants you up at the Big House," he panted like he'd run all the way. His yellow eyes were round but the pupils were all slitty like a cat's.

Chiron had pillow hair and was wearing a pajama top on his human half and curlers in the tail of his horse half. A big guy covered with eyes – I mean _literally _covered with blinking blue eyes – was with him, and Annabeth who didn't look like she'd been sleeping and Jason and Clarisse who looked as if they had.

Three kids were sitting on one of the sofas, kind of shell-shocked, holding mugs of cocoa. One was a really beautiful, exotic looking girl with olive skin and dark hair about my age with a much younger blond girl on one side and an even littler boy with light brown hair on the other. All three had sea green eyes and by now I knew what that meant. These just had to be the little brother and sisters Dad wanted me to look after for him – and that meant that my nightmare wasn't just a dream.

I stuck out my hand. "Hi, I'm Pearl. This is Morgan. We're your sister and brother."

The oldest girl didn't turn a hair, just took my hand and gave it a shake. Next to her the little blond wriggled in delight. "Another sister, I've always wanted one now I've got two!"

Morgan shook hands with the little boy. "We got to stick together," he said, "we're outnumbered."

"I'm Leakalani Cooke," the dark, pretty girl began.

"She's a princess!" our blond sister put in happily.

"My mother's a Hawaiian High Chiefess," Leakalani explained, "that's kind of like a princess. Anyway this is Shelly and Jimmy Goldman."

"Our mom is an Oceanographer," little Jimmy told Morgan. "That's how she came to meet Dad."

"We didn't know he was a god," Shelly continued, "but we always knew he was magic. He was the one who made it so Mom could breathe underwater and we can too, and turn into mermaids –"

"Seal boy!" her brother barked.

She ignored him. "And talk to fish and dolphins and seals and things. So our dad being Poseidon made perfect sense."

Well somebody sure wasn't having any problems adjusting!

I guess centaurs – like a lot of grown-ups - take a little time to wake up all the way. Chiron finally put down his coffee cup and joined in the conversation. "Surely Poseidon assigned someone to watch over you, where are your protectors?"

All three kids looked unhappy. "We don't know," Leakalani said. "We had to leave them behind in the caves. We don't know what happened to them."

"They're gods, they've got to be okay," little Shelly said hopefully.

"Gods can't be killed any more than monsters, right?" Jimmy asked Morgan.

"That's right," Jason answered reassuringly. "If they were underwater they'd be able to draw power from the sea itself. I only managed to defeat Proteus by getting him up on land, and I certainly didn't kill him."

I wondered why he'd be fighting a sea god in the first place but this wasn't the time to ask.

"Start at the beginning, children," Chiron said. "Leakalani first, please."

She took a gulp of her cocoa. "Okay, like I said my mom's Hawaiian. We live on her ranch on the Big Island -"

"Ranch?" several people said together, including me.

Leakalani pulled a face. "Yeah, ranch. Hawaii isn't all beaches and palm trees like on television. Mom owns hundreds of acres inherited from the old chiefs and we raise cattle and horses. In fact she met Dad at a horse show."

"So did my mom," I said. "Dad likes horses."

"Poseidon created horses," said Annabeth.

That surprised me, "Really?"

"Yeah, that's why I can talk to them." Leakalani went on: "Anyway a month or so ago we started having lots of earthquakes and I started feeling sick to my stomach all the time. We didn't realize there was a connection until Pele, she's the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and a sort of relative on my mom's side, came down to warn us – she's friendly with Dad and knew all about me.

"Pele said she wasn't making the earthquakes, she didn't know who was and she didn't like it one bit. Neither did Mom. They figured it had to have something to do with me – that's when they told me who Dad was – and Mom called the Aggers, the old _haoles _who rent our beach house –"

"The old what?" Clarisse interrupted.

"_Haole_ that's what we call white people. We don't mean it in a nasty way. Anyway the Aggers are the sea-gods Dad assigned to guard me. They said I'd better come here right away – I was supposed to go this summer –"

"Me too," Morgan, the Goldmans and I all said together.

"They were talking about if it would be safe to take a ship or if we should swim when my stomach started hurting again and then the ground started shaking and it went on and on – real earthquakes never last very long you know -" Shelly and Jimmy nodded as if they did know that. "The grown-ups all ran outside," Leakalani continued. "I couldn't run, it hurt so much, but I dragged myself to a window and I saw that the ground between our house and the barn was heaving upward and cracking. Lava came out and all of a sudden I just _knew_ that something was trying to make a volcano right in the middle of our backyard, something that _wasn't_ Madam Pele and had no right. It's _our_ island, Pele's and Mom's and mine, and something that didn't belong was _invading _it!" her forehead wrinkled in a frown. "I got angry. My stomach didn't hurt so much – or maybe it was different kind of hurt…. I don't really understand what happened next. I could _feel_ the whatever-it-was pushing, trying to get out to attack us. And I – somehow – pushed back. It was like we were on either side of a door. It wanted to open the door to get in and I wanted the door closed to keep it out. We shoved harder and harder. It hurt so much but I didn't care anymore. Nothing mattered but making the thing _go_ _away!_ The ground shook and shook, the windows were rattling like anything and stuff was falling off shelves and the table…I was winning, I knew I was winning. I pushed and pushed and I shoved what-ever-it was back down into the earth deeper and deeper…"

She broke off with a shrug. "That's all I remember. I blacked out or fainted or something and when I woke up I was at the Goldman's place in San Diego."


End file.
